Troublesome
by Mr.Mocha
Summary: "How would you q-quiet someone down?" "Cover their mouth." In which Ino gives Hinata some advice, and Hinata goes about following the advice in a very interesting way.


Troublesome.

-::-

"_How would you q-quiet someone down?" "Cover their mouth." _

-::-

"Hinata, you okay?" Said kunoichi looked up, a bit startled at being called out so suddenly. She was greeted by a pair of dazzling blue eyes. The aroma of flowers wafted through the air, and Hinata remembered where she was. Right now, she was at the Yamanaka flower shop. Due to Inoichi being on a mission, his daughter (who happened to be a fellow kunoichi and Hinata's friend) was in charge.

With a polite nod, Hinata replied, "I'm f-fine." Ino gave the female Hyuuga an unsure glance, and continued to organize the new flowers that had come in that morning. Learning about the new shipment that had come in, Hinfata jumped at the idea of helping out at the flower shop with Ino. Although, admittedly, all Hinata did for the time she was there was sigh and space out. Usually, she'd be up and about, organizing flowers even faster than her blonde friend — pressing flowers was in fact one of Hinata's hobbies.

But today, Hinata just seemed to be out of it. She sighed again, and put her face in the palm of her hand, allowing the counter to support her. Unconsciously, with the use of her pinky, she tugged up at her Konoha headband she was wearing. She ditched the headband a while ago, but she needed it today. Hyuuga eyes watched Ino wordlessly as she continued to work. Obviously, Ino was very much aware of the fact Hinata was simply staring at her. Putting the last flower in place, Ino turned abruptly, and stood directly in front of the counter. Hinata looked up at Ino from her sitting position, and gave a small smile. Ino simply huffed.

"Cut the crap, Hinata. I am a master of my clan's mind techniques." Narrowing her eyes at Hinata, Ino got to the point. "Either I can perform the jutsu right now and find out what's bothering you, or you can tell me." After a stare down, Hinata gave into the Yamanaka's demands. She lifted her head up out of her hands and sat up straight. Ino couldn't help but think to herself that although Hinata wouldn't admit, she was much like a Hyuuga — always proper and polite.

"H-How did you know?" Hinata asked, referring to Ino knowing that something was up. This time, it was Ino's turn to sigh.

"I have known you since our academy days Hinata — you're an open book." Ino said, leaning against the wall. Hinata's face was flushed, due to embarrassment, and she nodded in acknowledgement. She was certainly an open book. After a second or two of silence, Hinata remembered why she was so troubled.

"Ino, how would you q-quiet someone down?" She asked sheepishly, earning a raised brow from Ino.

"That's what you were worrying about?" Ino asked, relieved that her friend's problem wasn't all that worrisome. Hinata nodded quickly. With a giggle, Ino answered, "Well, you'd cover their mouth." In realization, Hinata's mouth was shaped into a 'o'. Quickly closing her mouth, she nodded again, and thanked Ino.

"No problem," Ino said casually. She stopped leaning on the wall for support, and hopped over the counter top. "I'm curious though," Ino admitted, as she effortlessly made it over the counter top and sat in the seat next to Hinata. "Why are you asking?"

At this, Hinata started to sputter incoherent sentences as her face began to heat up. Watching her friends reaction, Ino let her trademark smirk etch itself onto her face. Oh, messing with Hinata was too much fun. Seeing the way Ino was smiling, Hinata quickly put an end to her babbling and looked at Ino awkwardly.

"It's about Shikamaru." Hinata muttered, bringing about an old habit from her academy days, as she pressed her fore-fingers together shyly. At first, Ino was giddy with excitement, thinking she'd learn new juicy information she can add to her 'database' — Ino happened to be gossip queen. But her excitement quickly nullified and turned into mortification.

"Shikamaru?" Ino exclaimed her teammate's name, making Hinata jump up a bit in her seat. "What did that fucker do I swear to god Hinata I'll straighten him out for sure." Hinata was accustomed to Ino's foul language. She started to shout profanities every time she was mad — and it was usually about Shikamaru or Chouji. Just yesterday, as Hinata was walking by the flower shop, she heard Ino yelling at poor Chouji for neglecting his diet and gaining another 2 pounds.

"I-It's nothing!" Hinata quickly assured, which made Ino a bit calmer. "It's just that L-Lady Tsunade have been assigning me more missions with Shikamaru as my teammate. A-And on every mission he keeps saying —"

"Troublesome." Both girls sighed out at the same time. Exhaling, Ino calmed down completely and gave Hinata a reassuring smile.

"Well, if Shikamaru ever does something to you, tell me." With a terrifying expression on her face, Ino continued, "Me and Sakura will fuck him up for sure." Hinata nodded, knowing full well Ino meant it. With a grunt, Hinata got up, and dusted herself off. Informing Ino she had to go. With a wave, Hinata jumped over the counter top in the same fashion as Ino did (just with the grace of a Hyuuga) and left the flower shop. With her, she took Ino's advice and repeated it again and again in her mind.

After all, she was assigned another mission with the Nara genius that is to be carried out tomorrow.

* * *

"W-Well, all we have to do really is go spy on the enemy ninjas, S-Shikamaru." Hinata spoke to her lazy teammate in a hushed tone. She assumed he didn't like it when people were too loud, so she was always speaking softly around him. She doubted that he had noticed. Genius he may be, but it never seemed he was paying attention. But that was fine for Hinata — she didn't like attention all too much anyway.

With a sigh, the Nara male placed his hands into his pockets, and shrugged listlessly. "Man, Tsunade's good at nothing but losing bets." Hinata's face gained a rosy color as she respectfully reprimanded Shikamaru.

"P-Please respect Lady Tsunade!" Hinata requested in a somewhat loud voice. When she was greeted with silence, Hinata immediately regretted 'yelling' at Shikamaru. The volume of her voice must have disrupted his peacefulness. Scolding herself mentally, Hinata was about to apologize to Shikamaru, but he beat her to speaking.

With a yawn, he said, "Don't yell, Hinata." Hinata gave Shikamaru an apologetic look. Shikamaru remained indifferent as he took his hands out of his pockets, and pointed to Hinata's neck, which was securely covered by her headband. "The last mission we were on, you were barely scratched by a kunai. It must hurt when you speak loudly, so I suggest not doing it." He yawned again, closing his eyes as he did. Hinata was grateful for that yawn, because it prevented Shikamaru from seeing Hinata's flustered look as she covered her face. She felt her face heat up, and felt extremely sorry for thinking Shikamaru didn't notice anything. Ah, she was such a bad teammate!

Shikamaru opened his eyes again, and saw the female Hyuuga nervous state. Although she was trying her best to cover it, he could tell she was blushing — her ears were bright red. Scratching the back of his head, he said, "Man, this is so troublesome. Let's just go, Hinata." Hinata's head perked up as soon as Shikamaru said the key word — _troublesome_. She followed Shikamaru like an obedient puppy as he walked out of the Konoha gates. He made sure he was always in front of Hinata, just in case. Walking silently, save for the leaves crunching underneath their sandals now and then, Shikamaru did a littlet reflection on the past month.

Tsunade has been pairing him with Hinata frequently this month, claiming that she thought Hinata's quietness best suited Shikamaru's laziness. At first, he objected — to be frank, he thought Hinata was a bit weird. All he remembered about her was the fact that she was heads over heels for Naruto practically her whole life. But on the missions, he realized how she paid attention to the little things Chouji would even overlook. Not only was she observant, but she was always prepared. On every single mission they had so far, she had the right materials beforehand. It was quite admirable.

But what really surprised the Nara was how she made it seem like she was dancing when she did a jutsu. At first, Shikamaru viewed Hinata as someone who needed to be protected. But, she ended up protecting him, when he had let his guard down. She expertly preformed gentle fist, and ultimately beat the shit out of the guy. She made him quietly acknowledge the fact that she was as strong as he.

He wasn't sure when falling for her came into the equation though. Maybe it was because he was always surrounded by bossy, loud women. Maybe Hinata's quiet nature fascinated him. Or the way she handled everything with care — paying attention to every single little detail. To tell the truth, the genius didn't know what he found so bewilderingly exciting about the stuttering Hyuuga. And that annoyed the hell out of him.

"Girls are just so troublesome —" He was stopped in the middle of his sentence due to Hinata tugging on his sleeve. He stopped walking and turned to face her. She placed her finger in front of her lips, and signaled Shikamaru to keep quiet. Realizing they were probably around the meeting point of the enemy ninjas, he nodded, and turned around, leaving Hinata to face his back.

Strangely enough, she kept a firm grip on his sleeve. He didn't say anything. It wasn't like he minded. Deep in thought, the male didn't even realize they were dangerously close to the ninjas. He was alerted to this fact once Hinata forcefully dragged him along with her as she hid behind a bush near the 2 enemy ninja. Hinata let go of Shikamaru's sleeve by then, and knelt down behind the bush as she tried to listen to the enemy ninjas.

He watched silently as Hinata activated her byakugan to see if there were any hidden weapons. Her eyes still trained on the ninjas, she whispered, "They have kunais within their possession, and I see explosive tags on them as well." She then continued to listen intently to what they were saying.

Shikamaru could care less, this was all so tiring. Unbeknownst to Hinata, he quickly formed rat hand seal and initiated his shadow imitation jutsu. He couldn't help but yawn loudly, making Hinata whip her head towards him and urge him to be quiet. Once he had control of the two ninjas, he noticed that Hinata wasn't aware that he did.

"Man," Shikamaru started to say with a dull tone. Hinata looked at him pleadingly and wordlessly begged him not to speak. When she understood that he wasn't going to listen to her, she remembered what Ino told her.

"This is really trou—" Shikamaru was interrupted by two (dare he say it) soft lips covering his. It lasted only a brief second until Hinata broke it off as quickly as she initiated it. Burning as bright as a ripe tomato, she begged Shikamaru in a hushed tone to stay quiet. Still a bit surprised at what happened, Shikamaru said nothing.

"A-Ah, I-Ino told me t-t-to cover your mouth and I didn't know what to do s-so…" Hinata trailed off, her eyes fixated on the ground as her stuttering habit came back in full effect. Looking away from Shikamaru, she watched the two ninjas and wondered why they were crouched down on the ground in the similar fashion as Shikamaru. And then realization hit her. Shikamaru wouldn't be careless enough to blow their cover unless he had it under control.

Her mouth agape, she watched, stunned, as Shikamaru got up and took 2 steps back. The enemy nin did the same, and collided with the tree which had an hidden explosive tag. Being weak ninjas, they fainted soon after, and Shikamaru released his hold on them and let his shadow return.

Looking down at Hinata who was still crouching, he offered a smirk.

"Well that was quite troublesome." He said. Hinata promptly fainted after sputtering out incoherent sentences. Kneeling down to pick Hinata up, Shikamaru mentally noted that he'd need to thank Ino. And as for the ninjas, they weren't even dangerous. They were simply talking about how they were going to beat Tsunade — in their next gamble.

Walking with Hinata in his arms, the giddy Nara also reminded himself to use the word 'troublesome' more often.

* * *

**a/n **I actually really liked how this was going but then the oneshot went downhill…fast. Someone please teach me how to write.


End file.
